Social media for working mums

You probably have a Facebook account, and may have even set up a Twitter account at some stage, but between checking emails (work and home), paying bills, being a mum, exercising and cooking meals, it’s all become a bit much. Apparently Pinterest is a thing now, and everyone at work seems to be on LinkedIn.

How are we supposed to cope?

I confess I have a little social media fatigue whenever a new medium starts to creep into conversation or the media. I like Facebook because it’s a nice way of keeping up with important news from friends I don’t see that often and Twitter is a good way of keeping up with news, but I do find both my Twitter and Facebook feeds fill with clutter occasionally – I have been known to do a regular cull to stop too much appearing in my newsfeeds.

To help me ensure I get the really important things done (like turn up for work in matching shoes and cuddle my daughter in the morning), I tend to block out certain times for social media. This changes a bit, but we recently went away for a weekend and I didn’t check my accounts at all, which I think really added to how refreshed I felt afterwards. I also try not to check anything after 9pm or first thing in the morning.

If you’ve avoided setting up new accounts on something like Pinterest because you’re not sure which one works for you or whether it will take up too much time, Working Mother magazine now has an excellent guide, including information on how much time they take and what each social medium is best used for. It also gives recommendations on how often you should check in on each one to get the best out of them – once a week for LinkedIn if you’re actively looking for a job, two or three times a day for Twitter.

It’s excellent, and you can check it out here. I love the description of Pinterest as for competitive homemakers!

I use Hootsuite to collate my social media accounts which allows me to check my work, personal and blog accounts at the same time. It functions slightly differently than the standard social media pages but it’s a great quick check in when I only have ten minutes to spare. I also prefer the Ipad version to the web because I find the web version has been a bit slow and crashed a few times, but I’ve stuck with it on the Ipad for the evening check in in front of the TV without any problems.

Used properly, social media helps us get the information we need and want quickly and efficiently, keep in touch with friends and improve our home and work lives. Used poorly, it can waste your time, leave you feeling overloaded with meaningless information and take time away from more important things.

With an occasional review and edit of how you use social media, you can really enjoy any spare time you have 🙂

One response to “Social media for working mums”

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